Dallas
“WHAT DO YOU have?” I asked Jaxon.
Jaxon nodded toward the kitchen. “Let’s talk in there.”
I followed Jaxon inside and closed the swinging door, leaning against the counter.
Jaxon grabbed a beer and sat at the peninsula. “The guy who raped Macey is Bruce’s uncle.”
“What?” I snapped.
“It’s actually his great uncle on his mother’s side.”
“Bruce knew the bastard?” I asked, seething.
Jaxon shook his head. “That’s what we’re trying to find out.”
I scowled. “What is there to find out, Jax? They’re related.”
“Yeah, but from all accounts, Bruce’s mom hasn’t talked to her side of the family in years, and Bruce hasn’t seen his great uncle in almost twenty, so it’s possible he’s unaware of his uncle’s… proclivities.”
“Fuck, fuck, fuck,” I snapped as I dragged my hands through my hair.
“It was Bruce’s mom who changed the file.”
“You’re shittin’ me.” I shook my head.
“She’s sleeping with Robert Mann.”
“Attorney General, Robert Mann?” I snapped.
Jaxon nodded.
“Well, then how exactly did she change the file?”
“Our C.I. says he has evidence, which Brock’s getting tomorrow,” Jaxon said. “We’re trying to find out if she did it directly, if she made him or someone else do it, and if Bruce knew anything about it.”
“You said a man left the note on Macey’s car.”
“Yeah. We haven’t located him yet.”
“Damn it! What the hell has everyone been doing all this time?”
“It’s been less than a week,” Jaxon said. “Calm down, Dal.”
“Don’t tell me to calm the fuck down! I want some answers.”
“I get it, but it takes time. I told you it would. We’re trying to do this right, brother. Nail these people to the wall, remember?”
I nodded and pinched the bridge of my nose. “Does Jim know about Mona’s… ah… indiscretion?”
Jaxon shrugged. “Possibly. Everyone knows he’ll dip his wick into anyone offering. Male or female. Maybe she was sick of not having a little fun.”
“Or they’ve been living like this forever.”
“Could be that too,” Jaxon said.
I paced the small room. “Mona knows Macey.”
“Well, yeah, she dated Bruce.”
“No, I mean, she knows her more than that,” I revealed. “She warned Macey away from Bruce.”
“When?”
“Not long before Macey dumped him.”
“And you’re worried the only reason she ended the relationship is because of Mona.”
I shook my head. “No. I know why she ended it with him; I think Mona was just confirmation.” I slammed my hands down on the counter, my verbal processing suddenly revealing something concerning. “Fuck! Macey’s on her radar, Jax. She’s a class-A, psychotic bitch with money and power, and Macey’s on her radar. Fuck!”
“We’ll figure this out.”
“Do it fast,” I demanded. “Because if there’s even a hint of Mona Daniels anywhere near Macey, I will kill her.”
Jaxon checked his watch. “I’m meeting with Matt and Brock tonight. I’ll keep you posted.”
I nodded, dragging my hands down my face again. I stood in the kitchen for several minutes after Jaxon left, trying to process the information I’d received and debating on how much to tell Macey. In the end, I knew I had to tell her everything, so I headed back to the bedroom just as she walked from the bathroom, wrapped in a towel.
She smiled. “Is Jax gone?”
I nodded.
Macey frowned. “What’s wrong, honey?”
“How about you get dressed and we’ll talk?”
“I hate it when you tell me we have to talk. It’s never good,” she complained. “How about you tell me while I dress?”
I sat on the edge of the bed. “Mona Daniels is the one who changed the file.”
“What file?” she asked as she dropped the towel and stepped into a sexy as hell pair of panties.
I forced myself to look away or we’d never get any further. “Your file.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I know.”
“Dal?”
I glanced up at her and groaned. She stood with her hands on her hips, naked except her black-lace panties and a towel on her head, and I realized she wasn’t trying to cover her scars. She was totally comfortable with me and all I could think about was throwing her on the bed and fucking her senseless.
“You need to put some clothes on,” I said.
She gasped. “Oh my god, I forgot about the scars.” She turned to her suitcase and grabbed a T-shirt. “Sorry, honey.”
I grabbed her hand and pulled her to me before she could put it on. “Not that,” I said, cupping her breasts. “These. God, baby. You whip these puppies out and I am rendered both speechless and hard.” I tugged the shirt from her hand and dropped it on the bed before running my finger gently over one of her scars. “These don’t bother me on any level.”
“Are you sure?”
I lowered myself to the bed again and wrapped my arms around her waist. “You’re beautiful. I can’t really express in words how inadequate that meaning is to me.”
Macey grinned, looping her arms around my neck and leaning forward. “No motor-boating.”
I laughed as I drew one nipple into my mouth and then the other. “Perfect, baby.”
“Still want me to get dressed?”
I frowned up at her. “Yeah, baby. This is too important to get sidetracked.”
“Wow, it must be.” She reached for her T-shirt. “Should I be worried?”
“Physically, never. I’ve got you. But our conversation might bring up some hard memories.”
Macey nodded. “Okay.”
I waited while she pulled on yoga pants and, after towel-drying her hair, slipped it into a bun on top of her head. Once she was dressed, we sat on the sofa in front of the fireplace, a bottle of wine open and ready.
Macey sat with her back against one of the sofa arms and settled her legs over one of mine. I laid my arm across her thighs.
“Wine?” I asked.
“Yeah, probably a good idea.”
I poured her a glass and handed it to her. “I’ll start at the beginning and we can pick it apart as we go.”
She nodded and sipped her wine.
“As you may or may not know, we take notes on any case we do and then we enter those notes into the database and either file or shred our paper trail. A few of the older agents don’t feel comfortable shredding shit, so they hold onto their original notes, but a lot of us don’t.”
Macey nodded. “Makes sense. The world’s going paperless.”
“In your case, Brock and Jaxon took detailed notes, entered everything into the database and were ordered… ordered, Macey, not just encouraged to… shred their paper trail. They didn’t.”
“Why would it matter?”
“Because it means that whoever changed the details in your electronic file would be able to control the information.”
“Why would they want to do that?” she asked.
“Because the man who raped you was Bruce Daniels’ uncle.”
Macey gasped, dragging in a sip of wine, which brought on a coughing fit. I took her wine from her and rushed to the kitchen for water, handing it to her once she got her choking under control. She gulped the water and then took several deep breaths.
“You okay?” I asked.
She shook her head. “Are you saying that Bruce tried to cover this up?”
I flopped onto the sofa. “I wish I were.”
“You really hate him that much?”
“No. I don’t hate the guy. I just hate him.”
Macey rolled her eyes. “Thanks for clarifying.”
“Right now we’re not sure where Bruce stands with this. Brock is checking on some evidence that Mona, or someone associated with Mona, changed the Attorney General’s file.”
“Because she’s sleeping with him.”
“You knew?”
“Bruce told me in a moment of weakness. It has been going on for years.” She bit her lip. “I think they’re swingers.”
“I’m sorry?”
“Bruce’s parents. I think they swing.”
I frowned. “Well, that wouldn’t surprise me one bit.”
“Yeah, they’re kind of creepy.”
I nodded.
“So, did she leave the note on my car?”
“No. A man did, but we haven’t been able to sort out who it is or what his connection to all of this is.”
“Do you think it might have been Bruce?” she asked.
“Not the right height. Bruce is tall,” I said. “The guy who left the note wore a hoodie and made a point to avoid the camera, but he was around five-foot-ten and has a tattoo on his right hand. The video’s grainy, so that’s all we could determine.”
“So, not like those television shows that just ‘enhance the video’?”
I chuckled. “Not even close.”
“What’s the tattoo of?”
“Can’t tell. It covers most of his hand, though.”
“If you can see the tattoo, then he must not have been wearing gloves, right?”
“Yeah, but he also didn’t leave fingerprints,” I said. “So he could have wiped them down.”
“Crap.” She sipped her wine. “Bruce’s mom warned me away from him.”
“I know.”
“Seriously?” she complained.
“Babe, why are you surprised I know this shit?”
Macey frowned. “Payton needs to learn to keep her mouth shut.”
“It wasn’t Payton who told me.”
She groaned. “But she probably told Brock. She tells Brock everything.”
I smiled. “To be fair, all the sisters tell Brock everything.”
“Well, they did until they met their husbands. I have a feeling they tell him a lot less now.”
“You’re probably right.”
“You know I broke up with Bruce because of other reasons, right?” she asked. “Not because of his mom.”
“Yeah, babe. I know. He’s of no threat to me.”
“Cocky as ever.”
I chuckled. “Confident.”
“So what now, Dal? We can’t just hole up here forever. At some point, we need to get back to our lives.”
I scowled.
“Look,” she continued, “If Mona’s behind this, then she’s going to have contingencies. It’s not like you can simply waltz in and arrest her. It won’t stick. This is going to take time.”
“I know that, Macey,” I ground out, and cocked my head. “Why are you so damn calm when ten minutes ago you were ripping Jaxon’s head off?”
“Because I’m drinking wine,” she quipped.
“If only that always worked.”
Macey set her wine on the coffee table and climbed onto my lap. “I’m calm because there’s nothing I can do about this right now and I know that you’ve got me.”
I settled my hands on her waist and shook my head. “You’re killing me.”
She smiled, leaning down to kiss me. “I want to go home. In a couple of days, just to be clear, because I’m loving this break, but we can’t let these people force us to hide.”
“Macey, it’s more complicated than that.”
“Probably. But if I’m out in the open, maybe they’ll think I’m getable. It might make them lower their guard and come after me. We could set a trap.”
“Are you insane?”
“Maybe, but that’s beside the point. They might make a move that you can stop,” she said.
“No.”
“Why not?”
I frowned. “Because no one’s asking you to do that, babe.”
“I know, Dal. I’m offering.”
I shifted her off of me and stood. “No.”
“Is Bruce involved?”
“We’re not having this conversation,” I said, and headed to the kitchen.
“Just answer the question.” She rose to her feet and followed. “Is Bruce involved?”
“We don’t know.” I opened the fridge and grabbed a beer.
“I can find out.”
“Stop it, Macey. It’s not gonna happen.”
“I can help you.”
“No.”
She crossed her arms. “Why not?”
“Because I don’t want you anywhere near him or his family.”
“You can put a wire on me. Be backup… have me followed,” she continued. “You can make sure I’m safe. I can even carry a gun.”
“Hell, no,” I snapped.
“Dallas!” she ground out. “You’re being an ass.”
“This is not gonna happen, Macey, so just give it up.”
She huffed and stomped back to the bedroom, slamming the door, which took effort because it didn’t close easily.